Grand Africa Cruise - Final Thoughts

“It doesn’t matter where you are going. It matters who is beside you.”  -- Anonymous

This is my favorite travel quote of all the ones I have posted.  Since I joined Val in retirement in 2012, we have visited 56 countries and travelled through many areas of the US and Canada, and to share these travels with Val has been the most special time of my life.  We have had joyous times together, we have had challenges, uncertainties and scary times, we have argued and disagreed, but through it all, we have looked out for each other, helped each other and always loved each other.  We are getting older and our window to be able to travel is closing, but we will have these memories to share for the rest of our lives.  The quote is right, the places we visited have been great, but the most important thing is that Val and I have done them together.  I can’t even imagine what those experiences would have been without her or how it would be, traveling without her in the future.  Thank you, Val, for another wonderful trip together.

Final Thoughts

First off, some stats from the cruise.  We visited 24 ports in 18 countries and traveled almost 23,000 miles, nearly the circumference of the earth.  We completely circumnavigated the continent of Africa with stops in North Africa, Sub-Saharan areas of East and West Africa as well as South Africa.  A truly unique trip.

The Grand Africa cruise lived up to its name and was certainly Grand.  It was one of our best cruises, but also the most challenging.  The heat and humidity were almost constant through much of the trip, and the lack of air conditioning off the ship made it a challenge.  Many of the countries we visited lacked a tourist industry that made even a simple thing like finding a bathroom a challenge.  We were constantly warned to be careful because of safety issues in many of the ports.

Having said all that, we wouldn’t have traded this experience for anything, this trip was wonderful.  We were in places I never imagined I would ever be and had many truly unique experiences.  And, for all of my moaning about the humidity, bathrooms, and air conditioning, on most nights we had an air-conditioned ship to return to with clean beds, good food and crew members waiting on us hand and foot.  No wonder so many of the Africans we talked to couldn’t imagine what it was like travel on a cruise ship.

For me, the best part of the trip was our safari.  Going on an African safari had been at the top of my bucket list for a long time and although it was a short one, it more than lived up to my expectations.

What Val liked the best (second best for me) wasn’t just one thing, but the overall immersion into the culture of Africa.  Obviously, we didn’t get an in-depth look at any one area, but we were in many places and were able to get some understanding of what Africa is about.  We visited villages and cities and saw a lot of the countryside as we traveled on our various tours.  I think we were surprised to find that many of the things we thought were just travelogue scripted shots, were actually part of daily African life.

We also found the African people very friendly and as curious about our lives as we were about theirs.  It was a humbling experience as so many of the things we take for granted at home are luxuries beyond even thinking about for many of the areas in Africa.  The phrase “a first world problem” is much more than just a humorous catch phrase now as we sailed home realizing just how good we have it here in the United States.

I could go on and on about Africa, but I’ll leave it at that and just repeat that we had one of the best experiences of our lives on this adventure.

So, what is next for us.  In the blog I mentioned the Australia Cruise we have coming up, but we decided to cancel that.  It was a wonderful cruise that left from San Diego traveled to Hawaii and through the South Pacific stopping at various islands along the way and then completely circling Australia and New Zealand before returning to San Diego stopping at more South Pacific islands along the way.  Sounds wonderful doesn’t it.  We thought so too, but it is 94 days long and after our 71-day Grand Africa cruise, we thought it would be just too long for us.  We never thought we would say that, but I think we reached our limit at 71 days.

So again, what’s next.  Just about the time we cancelled the Grand Australia Cruise we got an e-mail from Holland America offering us a huge casino discount on a cruise that we had already taken but had always wanted to do again.  I don’t quite understand how the casino discount comes about as the discount far exceeds any amount we have ever spent in the casino, but maybe it’s just because we go to the casino almost every night when we aren’t in port.

The Cruise is called the Voyage of the Vikings and leaves from Boston and goes up the East Coast of Canada then on to Greenland, Iceland, Scotland, before getting to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.  The cruise then starts back visiting Ireland, Northern Ireland and then Scotland, Iceland, Greenland and Eastern Canada again before returning to Boston.  The cruise is 35 days in all and leaves this summer.  Here is a link to the first time we did the Voyage of the Vikings in 2016.

The itinerary is slightly different than the first time we took it, so there will be some new places and some familiar places.  This was one of our favorite cruises, so we are looking forward to doing it again.  It is also the cruise where we met and became friends with Ken and Mary Beth who we still keep in touch with and see whenever we get a chance.

We hope to do a road trip to the Northwest US this fall, but you never know these days. However, one definite plan we have is our 28 Day Alaska Arctic Circle Solstice Cruise that we signed up for on this cruise.  It isn’t until June of 2024, so we have plenty of time to plan for that.

So that’s it for this very long cruise and blog and as always, we’ll see you on down the road.

Grand Africa Cruise - Debarkation and Our Journey Home

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

 “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.”  -- Mark Twain

We were up bright and early and after our last breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we waited for our turn to get off the ship.  We are flying out of the Miami airport and because our plane doesn’t leave until 3:40, we chose to do a Miami city tour before being dropped off at the airport.  Yesterday we received a letter saying our time to get off the ship at 7:45 which would give us time to claim our luggage and get to the bus before our 8:30 tour starts.

The cruise is over.  We sail from Puerto Rico to Fort Lauderdale.

Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale.

The ramp to get from the ship into the terminal.

Usually when they give you a time to get off the ship they say wait until your group is called, but on our letter yesterday it just said get off at 7:45 so after waiting a bit we decided we should just get off.  Big mistake!  It turns out others had the same idea we had, and it was very crowded, and they weren’t letting anyone off until their group was called.  We didn’t know what the delay was, but we stood around for almost an hour before they finally let our group go.

As we walked across the walkway from the ship to the terminal, we saw why there was such a long delay, the terminal had no power.  When you get off the ship you end up on the second floor of the terminal building and need to get down to the terminal floor by elevator, escalator or stairs.  Neither the elevators nor escalators were operating since the power was out, so the only way down was the stairs.

We had a few people in wheelchairs or walkers on the cruise, so this created a huge problem in how to get them down to the lower level.  They had to be helped or carried down the long set of stairs and it took quite an effort by the terminal staff.  Also, almost everyone getting off had their carry-on luggage so even for those of us able to walk down the stairs, it was still a bit challenging.  It was also quite dark with the only lighting being supplied by emergency lighting and flashlights.  Eventually we made it to the terminal floor and went to find our luggage that was left in areas designated in colors around the terminal floor.  We were in the red group for example.

The one good thing was that since we had gone through immigration in Puerto Rico, we didn’t have to go through the regular customs check and our luggage that was being shipped via Luggage Forward went directly from the ship to Luggage Forward. That made things a lot easier.

I found my bag, but Val’s was nowhere to be found.  We looked through other groups and all around the terminal, but it just wasn’t there.  There were other people doing the same thing which was unusual as there are typically no problems with luggage getting off the ship.

When we asked about it, we were told that all the luggage was off the ship, and we should go fill out a form for lost luggage.  We figured someone had grabbed it by mistake and hoped that it would be returned.  After filling out the form, we headed out to find our bus for our tour of Miami and transfer to the airport.  I felt bad for Val as I knew how I would feel if my luggage had disappeared.

It was about a half hour drive from Fort Lauderdale to Miami and our guide talked both about Fort Lauderdale and Miami as we drove.  Once in Miami we drove around the various districts while our guide filled us in on the city. 

While we were touring Miami my phone rang and it turned out to be a person from the Holland America shore staff telling me that Val’s bag had been found.  It turns out that all the luggage hadn’t been taken off the ship and the missing luggage had been part of that missed collection of bags.  This was very good news, but there was no way we could get back to Fort Lauderdale to collect it so I asked if it could be brought to the Miami airport where we could get it and they said no, but they could ship it to us.  That appeared to be the only thing we could do so we said OK.  Val and I were very relieved that it was found, but we were a little wary about how it would get shipped.

After that news, we felt much better and started to enjoy the tour.  We made one stop at the beach but couldn’t really do much due to our late start.  We also made a stop in the Little Havana area that looked interesting and if we ever visit Miami again, we thought it would be worth spending more time there.

We stopped in Little Havana.

Finally, it was time to head to the airport where we would be dropped off for our flights.  We had never been to Miami before, so the tour was very interesting to us.  The guide was very knowledgeable and had many interesting stories to tell so she certainly added to our enjoyment.

When we arrived at the airport we quickly got checked in and through security, but we found we had a very long walk to our departure gate.  We started at C1 and had to walk all the way to C46.  We found out later that if we had gone up another level there was a sky train that could have gotten us there much faster and easier.

We were both tired after we got to our gate as it was a long walk, especially with having to lug our carry-on luggage along with us.  We were both hungry and thirsty, so Val went and got us some snacks and drinks while I kept watch of the luggage and then we settled down for the hour's wait until it was time to board.

The boarding process was a bit disorganized as no one could understand the gate announcements.  The women doing the announcements had an accent which wouldn’t really have mattered except she spoke very rapidly.  We were flying first class which meant we would board first, but being unable to make out what was being said we waited.  Finally, as we saw a few people boarding we decided to go ahead and were soon on the plane.  It was a full plane, so it took quite a while for everyone to board, but we took off just a little late.

The plane left at 3:40 and about an hour into the flight they served us a pretty decent lunch.  We were quite hungry, and it tasted pretty good to us and filled us up.  We arrived right on time in Dallas where we had to change planes to get back to San Luis Obispo and home.

We had about an hour and a half layover in Dallas, but our return flight was in another terminal and this time we were smart enough to take the sky train.  It worked very well, and we were soon at our departure gate.  We had another wait until we boarded, but the time went by pretty quickly.

The boarding process was much more organized for this flight and the announcements were made very clearly.  It was another full flight, but again we got to board first and settled in while the plane filled up.  We were asked if we wanted the meal they were serving, but we weren’t very hungry so decided not to eat.

It had been a very long day and we were getting tired, and it seemed to take forever for the flight to end, but it finally did.  We picked up my bag at the baggage carousel and then found our friend Doug who had generously offered to meet us and drive us home, thanks so much Doug!

It was 10:30 when we finally got home, and we were very tired as it was 1:30 AM in the east where we had started.  Everything was in order at home and it felt good to be back on familiar turf again.  We were in bed by 11:00 and it felt mighty good to be back in our own bed again.  It was a little depressing to have our adventure be at an end, but on the other hand, it sure felt good to be home.

Luggage Follow-up

I wanted to follow up about Val’s missing luggage.  The day after we got home, I received a call from Holland America saying her bag had been shipped FEDEX overnight and we would have it the next day and sure enough, it arrived as scheduled.  That was a big relief and I commend Holland America on how well they handled it.  It was unfortunate that it happened in the first place, but they made up for it by making the effort to get it back to us quickly.